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Monday, 10 November 2008

The number of woman MPs increased by 1 bringing our percentage of XXers in the house to 33.6%. This result means New Zealand bounces up two places on the IPU's league table for the percentage of women in parliament, ranking number 14 (between Iceland and Mozambique of all places).

State of the Parties

Act The Act party didn't lose any of its 2 MPs at the election and had an increase of 3 MPs, all male. This brings down their percentage of female's in their caucus down from 50% to 20%.

GreenThe Greens also didn't lose any of its XXer MPs at this election but gained Catherine Delahunty. 5 of the party's 8 MPs are women at nearly 63% of the caucus this must be some sort of record in the New Zealand parliament.

LabourPrior to the election Labour had 18 female MPs in their caucus of 49, making 37%. Labour lost 6 women MPs through defeat and retirement at the election and gained four new ones (Jacinda Arden, Carol Beaumont, Carmel Sepuloni, Claire Curran). Currently Labour has 16 XXers in their caucus however the percentage of MPs remains unchanged at 37% of caucus.

NationalPrior to the election, National had 13 female MPs in their caucus of 48 (27%) they lost one female MP (Katerine Rich) to retirement at the election and gained 5 (out of 16) new MPs (Hekia Parata, Melissa Lee, Amy Adams, Louise Upston and Nikki Kaye)This is the first time in many years that National now has one more woman MP than Labour with 17 women MPs or 29% of the caucus. While there was an increase in both absolute and numerical numbers of National women MPs it will be interesting to see how many of these women make it into cabinet.

ProgressivesStill a one-man band just like its been since the last election.

United FutureUnited Future lost its only woman MP at this election. But never fear, Peter Dunne is still there. ConclusionNational has had an increase in its number of woman MPs following the election, Labour stayed the same, and with the exception of the Greens, the rest of the minors all but lost their female voices in parliament.